California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Tuesday banning digitally altered political “deepfakes” but Elon Musk quickly clapped back upon hearing the news, encouraging his 198 million X users to share an AI-doctored video of Vice President Kamala Harris — the same video that triggered Newsom to enact the legislation in the first place.
The new law, the strictest in the country, takes effect immediately and aims to crack down on deceptive content which uses artificial intelligence to create false images or videos.
The law makes it illegal to create and publish deepfakes ahead of Election Day and 60 days thereafter. It also allows courts to stop distribution of the materials and impose civil penalties, per The Associated Press.
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But Musk, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” does not appear to be backing down faced with Newsom’s new restrictions.
“The governor of California just made this parody video illegal in violation of the Constitution of the United States,” Musk wrote on his social media platform, resharing the video. “Would be a shame if it went viral.”
The doctored video, which has now been viewed 40 million times on X, plays AI-generated audio of Harris saying she is a deep state puppet, a diversity hire and rips her record on the border.
It’s mixed in with a real viral clip of Harris giving a speech where she gives a rambling speech about the significance of the passage of time.
X allows parody accounts, so long as they distinguish themselves as such “in their account name and in their bio,” per the company’s website. The platform does not have rules around individual posts containing parody and has been known to label deepfakes if the poster does not do so.
The Harris deepfake video is captioned: “Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY.”
Musk shared the video in July and then Newsom said he would outlaw such videos in the Golden State.
“Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is,” Newsom vowed in July after Musk shared it.
Following the signing of the bill on Tuesday, Newsom said that it is critical that AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation.
“Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy. … These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI,” Newsom said in a statement.
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The governor signed the bills to loud applause during a conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at an event hosted by the major software company during its annual conference in San Francisco.
“I could care less if it was Harris or Trump,” Newsom told Benioff during a conversation on Tuesday, per Politico. “It was just wrong on every level.”
It’s not the first time Newsom and Musk have clashed over California laws.
In July, Musk said he plans to move the California headquarters for SpaceX to Texas after Newsom signed a bill into law that will bar school districts from notifying parents if their child uses different pronouns or identifies as a gender that’s different from what’s on school records.
“This is the final straw,” he wrote on X, his social media platform, explaining his decision.
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“Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” he added.
The rise of artificial intelligence has raised concerns that the public may be unknowingly consuming deceptive content ahead of elections.
Earlier this year, a man came forward to say he had made a deepfake of President Biden urging New Hampshire voters not to participate in the state’s primary.
